Christine Sinclair

Christine Sinclair

Personal information
Full name	Christine Margaret Sinclair
Date of birth	(1983-06-12) June 12, 1983 (age 29)
Place of birth	Burnaby, BC, Canada
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position	Striker Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Portland Thorns
Number	12
Youth career
1994–2000	Burnaby South Secondary School
2001–2005	University of Portland
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2002	Vancouver Breakers[1]	4	(7)
2006–2008	Vancouver Whitecaps Women[2]	21	(10)
2009–2010	FC Gold Pride	40	(16)
2011	Western New York Flash	15	(10)
2013-	Portland Thorns	7	(3)
National team‡
2001–2002	Canada U-20 (U-19)	19	(27)
2000–	Canada	196	(145)
Honours Olympic Games Bronze 2012 London Football Pan American Games Bronze 2007 Rio de Janeiro Football Gold 2011 Guadalajara Football
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of March 11, 2013

Christine Margaret Sinclair (born June 12, 1983) is a Canadian professional soccer player for Portland Thorns FC and is captain of the Canadian national team. Sinclair is an Olympic bronze medalist and one of the most prolific scorers of all-time. She has spent 13 years with the national team, participating in three FIFA Women's World Cups (USA 2003, China 2007, Germany 2011) and two Olympic Football Tournaments (Beijing 2008, London 2012). Sinclair is a 10-time winner of the Canada Soccer Player of the Year award and has been honoured by FIFA as a nominee for World Player of the Year six times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012).^[3] Sinclair won both the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year and the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada's female athlete of the year in 2012.^[4][5]

Early life [edit]

Born in Burnaby, British Columbia, Sinclair is the niece of former North American Soccer League player Bruce Gant and niece of former Canadian international and NASLer Brian Gant.

She played both baseball and soccer growing up; playing in a boys' league in Burnaby, she made the local under-11 all-star team as a second baseman. It was here where she chose the number 12 as a tribute to the then-Toronto Blue Jays second baseman, Canadian- and National-Baseball Hall-of-Famer Roberto Alomar.^[6]

She was first selected to British Columbia's under-14 girls' all-star team at age 11, and went on to lead her club teams Burnaby Girls Soccer Club to six league titles, five provincial titles, and two top-five national finishes, as well as leading her high school team at Burnaby South Secondary School to three league championships. She played for Canada's under-18 national team before making her debut at senior level in the 2000 Algarve Cup, leading Canada in goal scoring at that event (3 goals).

University of Portland [edit]

In 2001, Sinclair arrived at the University of Portland where she made an immediate impact on an already formidable program. She recorded 23 goals and 8 assists in her first season, leading all freshmen in NCAA Division I total scoring. She was named Freshman of the Year by Soccer America magazine,^[7] and was a consensus All-America selection.

In the 2002 college season for Portland, she led Division I in goals with 26. Her last two goals were in that season's national championship game against conference rival Santa Clara, the second of which was a golden goal that gave the Pilots the national championship. Sinclair earned three different national Player of the Year honors, and was a finalist for the Hermann Trophy, the most prestigious Player of the Year award in college soccer. She was also West Coast Conference Player of the Year, and was again a consensus All-American. In the wake of her success for Canadian national teams and in U.S. college soccer, she was also named by The Globe and Mail (Toronto) as one of the 25 most influential people in Canadian sports in 2002.^[8]

Sinclair chose to redshirt in 2003 in order to play for Canada at the Women's World Cup. She returned to Portland in 2004, scoring 22 goals that season, and was again named WCC Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. She also won the Hermann Trophy^[9] that season.

During Sinclair's senior year at Portland, she set an all-time Division I goal-scoring record with 39.^[10] She capped off her collegiate career with two goals in a 4-0 rout of UCLA in the national title game. This performance also gave her a career total of 25 goals in NCAA tournament play,^[9] also a record. She was again named WCC Player of the Year, becoming only the second player in conference history to be so honored three times. Sinclair was also named Academic All-American of the Year by ESPN The Magazine (she graduated with a 3.75 grade point average in life sciences). She also won the M.A.C. Hermann Trophy,^[9] becoming only the fourth player and third woman to win it in back-to-back years. As a result of her record-setting season, Sinclair went on to win the Honda-Broderick Cup^[10][11] as the college woman athlete of the year. She became the third soccer player to win the award, joining Mia Hamm and Cindy Daws.

Playing career [edit]

Clubs [edit]

FC Gold Pride [edit]

Sinclair was selected by FC Gold Pride with the first pick in the second round (eighth overall) of the WPS Initial International Draft.^[12] She became one of the top two available forwards along with teammate Marta as they went on to win the regular season championship.^[13] The club ceased operations on November 16, 2010.^[14]

Western New York Flash [edit]

On December 10, 2010, The Western New York Flash of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) announced that they had agreed to terms with the Canadian striker.^[15] Once again Sinclair helped lead her team to the regular season championship, leading the league in goals(10) and assists(8) in 2011.

On August 27, 2011 in Rochester, she was named MVP of the final as her Western New York Flash won the Women's Professional Soccer championship. Sinclair's goal in the 64th minute gave the Flash a 1-0 lead over the Philadelphia Independence, and when the game was forced to penalty kicks, Sinclair stepped up and made the second one as the Flash players converted all five of their attempts.^[16]

Portland Thorns FC [edit]

On January 11, 2013, it was announced that Sinclair was selected to join the Portland Thorns FC by way of weighted allocation.^[17]

International [edit]

In 2002, she scored seven goals for Canada in the Women's Gold Cup, tying her for the tournament lead with teammate Charmaine Hooper and USA's Tiffeny Milbrett, a fellow Portland alumna. She played for Canada in the inaugural FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship. Sinclair's 10 goals in the tournament, still a record, helped lead Canada to a second-place finish, and earned her both the Golden Boot as leading scorer and Golden Ball as tournament MVP.

Sinclair chose to redshirt in 2003 in order to play for Canada at the Women's World Cup. She scored three goals in that tournament as Canada finished a better-than-expected fourth. She returned to Portland in 2004, scoring 22 goals that season, and was again named WCC Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. She also won the Hermann Trophy that season.

She made her 100th appearance on August 30, 2007 in a Women's International Friendly match against Japan.

On November 8, 2010 Sinclair scored the winning goal from the penalty spot in the final of the CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifiers.

Sinclair scored a hat-trick in a 4-3 extra-time loss in the 2012 Summer Olympics semifinal match against the American squad.^[18] Canada were unhappy with the performance of referee Christina Pedersen who made a series of controversial decisions in favour of the Americans. Sinclair was ultimately fined a reported $3,500 and banned for four matches for post match comments which accused Pedersen of bias and deciding the result of the match before it had kicked off.^[19]

Sinclair subsequently finished as the tournament's top scorer with six goals and led the Canadian women's national soccer team to a third place finish and a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with a 1-0 win against France on August 9, 2012.^[20] She broke the record of most goals scored in the Olympics for women's soccer and won the gold boot of the competition; scoring 2 goals against South Africa, 1 against Great Britain, and 3 against USA.^[21] Her remarkable effort as team captain and her performance in the semifinal earned her the honour of serving as Canada's flag bearer in the closing ceremony, as well as the Diamond Jubilee Medal.^[22]

On October 12, 2012, Sinclair was suspended for four games and fined an undisclosed amount for off the field misconduct at the 2012 London Olympics.^[23]

International goals [edit]

At the age of 29, she is the all-time leader in goals scored for the Canadian national team. As of April 7, 2013 (2013-04-07)^[update] she is the third overall in all-time international goals scored by a female player with 145.

Matches and goals scored at World Cup and Olympic tournaments [edit]

Christine Sinclair competed in three FIFA Women's World Cup: 2003 USA, 2007 China and 2011 Germany; and two Olympics: 2008 Beijing and 2012 London; altogether played 22 matches and scored 15 goals at those five global tournaments.^[24] Sinclair with her Canada teams finished fourth at USA 2003 Women's World Cup, and won the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

	Key
Lineup	Start – played entire match minute ( player) – substituted on at the minute indicated, and player was substituted off at the same time minute ( player) – substituted off at the minute indicated, and player was substituted on at the same time (c) – captain
Min	The minute in the match the goal was scored; blank indicates played in the match but did not score a goal.
Assist/pass	The ball was passed by the player, which assisted in scoring the goal. This column depends on the availability and source of this information. See Assist (football) page.
Score	The match score after the goal was scored.
aet	The score at the end of extra-time; the match was tied at the end of 90' regulation
pso	Penalty-shoot-out score shown in parathesis; the match was tied at the end of extra-time
pk or penalty	Goal scored on penalty-kick which was awarded due to foul by opponent. (Goals scored in penalty-shoot-out, at the end of a tied match after extra-time, are not included.)
Result	The final score. – match was won – match was lost to opponent – match was drawn () – penalty-shoot-out was won after a drawn match () – penalty-shoot-out was lost after a drawn match
	Orange background color – Olympic women's football tournaments
	Blue background color – FIFA women's world cup final tournaments

Goal	Match	Date	Location	Opponent	Lineup	Min	Score	Result	Competition
USA 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup
1	1	2003-09-20[m 1]	Columbus, OH	Germany	Start	4	1-0	1-4	Group stage
	2	2003-09-24[m 2]	Columbus, OH	Argentina	Start			3-0	Group stage
2	3	2003-09-27[m 3]	Foxborough, MA	Japan	Start	49	2-1	3-1	Group stage
	4	2003-10-02[m 4]	Portland, OR	China PR	Start			1-0	Quarter-final
	5	2003-10-05[m 5]	Portland, OR	Sweden	Start			1-2	Semifinal
3	6	2003-10-11[m 6]	Carson, CA	United States	Start	38	1-1	1-3	Third place match
China 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
	7	2007-09-12[m 7]	Hangzhou	Norway	Start; (c)			1-2	Group stage
4	8	2007-09-15[m 8]	Hangzhou	Ghana	Start; (c)	16	1-0	4-0	Group stage
5						62	3-0
6	9	2007-09-20[m 9]	Chengdu	Australia	Start; (c)	85	2-1	2-2	Group stage
Beijing 2008 Women's Olympic Football Tournament
	10	2008-08-06[m 10]	Tianjin	Argentina	Start; (c)			2-1	Group stage
7	11	2008-08-09[m 11]	Tianjin	China PR	Start; (c)	34	1-0	1-1	Group stage
	12	2008-08-12[m 12]	Beijing	Sweden	Start; (c)			1-2	Group stage
8	13	2008-08-15[m 13]	Shanghai	United States	Start; (c)	30	1-1	1-2 aet	Quarter-final
Germany 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
9	14	2011-06-26[m 14]	Berlin	Germany	Start; (c)	82	1-2	1-2	Group stage
	15	2011-06-30[m 15]	Bochum	France	Start; (c)			0-4	Group stage
	16	2011-07-05[m 16]	Dresden	Nigeria	Start; (c)			0-1	Group stage
London 2012 Women's Olympic Football Tournament
	17	2012-07-25[m 17]	Coventry	Japan	Start; (c)			1-2	Group stage
10	18	2012-07-28[m 18]	Coventry	South Africa	Start; (c)	58	2-0	3-0	Group stage
11						86	3-0
	19	2012-07-31[m 19]	New Castle	Sweden	Start; (c)			2-2	Group stage
12	20	2012-08-03[m 20]	Coventry	Great Britain	{{{4}}}. 88' ( Timko); (c)	26	2-0	2-0	Quarter-final
13	21	2012-08-06[m 21]	Manchester	United States	Start; (c)	22	1-0	3-4 aet	Semifinal
14						67	2-1
15						73	3-2
	22	2012-08-09[m 22]	Coventry	France	Start; (c)			1-0	Bronze medal match
Notes ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003: MATCH Report: Germany - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003: MATCH Report: Canada - Argentina". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003: MATCH Report: Canada - Japan". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003: MATCH Report: China - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003: MATCH Report: Sweden - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003: MATCH Report: USA - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007: MATCH Report: Norway - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007: MATCH Report: Canada - Ghanna". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007: MATCH Report: Australia - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008: Match Report: Argentina - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008: Match Report: Canada - China". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008: Match Report: Sweden - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008: Match Report: USA - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011: MATCH Report: Germany - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011: MATCH Report: Canada - France". FIFA.  ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011: MATCH Report: Canada - Nigeria". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012: Match Report: Japan - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012: Match Report: Canada - South Africa". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012: Match Report: Canada - Sweden". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012: Match Report: Great Britain - Canada". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012: Match Report: Canada - USA". FIFA.  ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012: Match Report: Canada - France". FIFA.

Honours [edit]

Club [edit]

FC Gold Pride

• WPS Championship (1): 2010

Western New York Flash

• WPS Championship (1): 2011

International [edit]

Canada

• CONCACAF Women's Championship (1): 2010
• Pan American Games Gold Medal (1): 2011
• Olympic Bronze Medal (1): 2012
• FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship Runner-Up: 2002
• FIFA Women's World Cup Fourth Place: 2003

Individual [edit]

• FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship Golden Boot:
  • Winner: 2002
• FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship Golden Ball:
  • Winner: 2002
• Canadian Players of the Year:
  • Winner: 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
• Lou Marsh Award:
  • Winner: 2012
• Bobbie Rosenfeld Award:
  • Winner: 2012

Decorations [edit]

• Diamond Jubilee Medal: 2012

See also [edit]

• List of association women football players with 100 or more international goals
• Portland Pilots

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christine Sinclair

• Christine Sinclair on Twitter
• Christine Sinclair – FIFA competition record
• Canada Soccer player profile
• Portland Thorns FC player profile
• Star bio: Canada's Christine Sinclair

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Patrick Chan	Lou Marsh Trophy winner 2012	Succeeded by Incumbent
Olympic Games
Preceded by Joannie Rochette	Flagbearer for  Canada at the Closing Ceremonies of the Olympics London 2012	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Karen Cockburn	Flagbearer for  Canada at the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremonies London 2012	Succeeded by Incumbent

v t e Canada squad – 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup 1 LeBlanc 2 Latham 3 Consolante 4 Andrews 5 Neil 6 Nonen 7 Morneau 8 Kiss 9 Wilkinson 10 Hooper 11 Hermus 12 Sinclair 13 Matheson 14 Moscato 15 Lang 16 Timko 17 Burtini 18 Dennis 19 McLeod 20 Swiatek Coach: Pellerud

v t e Canada squad – 2007 Pan American Games 1 LeBlanc 2 Kiss 3 Booth 4 Tancredi 5 Neil 6 Andrews 7 Wilkinson 8 Matheson 9 Chapman 10 Franko 11 Hermus 12 Sinclair 13 Walsh 15 Lang 16 Thorlakson 17 Timko 19 Vermeulen 20 Swiatek Coach: Pellerud

v t e Canada squad – 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup 1 LeBlanc 2 Kiss 3 Booth 4 Gayle 5 Neil 6 Dennis 7 Wilkinson 8 Matheson 9 Chapman 10 Franko 11 Hermus 12 Sinclair 13 Walsh 14 Tancredi 15 Lang 16 Thorlakson 17 Timko 18 McLeod 19 Schmidt 20 Swiatek 21 Robinson Coach: Pellerud

v t e Canada women's football squad – 2008 Summer Olympics 1 LeBlanc 2 Robinson 3 Zurrer 4 Rustad 5 Gayle 6 Schmidt 7 Wilkinson 8 Matheson 9 Chapman 10 Franko 11 Hermus 12 Sinclair (c) 13 Walsh 14 Tancredi 15 Lang 16 Filigno 17 Timko 18 McLeod Coach: Pellerud

v t e Canada squad – 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup 1 LeBlanc 2 Zurrer 3 Parker 4 Moscato 5 Gayle 6 Kyle 7 Wilkinson 8 Matheson 9 Chapman 10 Robinson 11 Scott 12 Sinclair 13 Schmidt 14 Tancredi 15 Julien 16 Filigno 17 Timko 18 McLeod 19 Stewart 20 Nault 21 Labbé Coach: Morace

v t e Canada squad – 2011 Pan American Games 1 Beanlands 2 Booth 3 Chapman 4 Gayle 5 Julien 6 Kyle 7 LeBlanc 8 Legault-Cordisco 9 Matheson 10 Parker 11 Schmidt 12 Scott 13 Sesselmann 14 Simpson 15 Sinclair 16 Timko 17 Wilkinson 18 Woeller Coach: Herdman

v t e Canada women's football squad – 2012 Summer Olympics – Bronze Medalists 1 LeBlanc 2 Zurrer 3 Stewart 4 Moscato 5 Gayle 6 Kyle 7 Wilkinson 8 Matheson 9 Chapman 10 Sesselmann 11 Scott 12 Sinclair (c) 13 Schmidt 14 Tancredi 15 Parker 16 Filigno 17 Timko 18 McLeod 19 Booth 20 Nault Coach: Herdman